Dog’s Barks Alerted Rescuers To Missing Man’s Location

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(Burlison, TN) There's a reason Cary Ferguson tightly clutched his dog Jinxy as rescuers brought him to safety. Rescuers say it was his best friend who saved his life after they were stuck in the woods for nearly eight hours.

“I thought we saw the top of his head. Then the dog went to barking, that’s how we found him,” rescuer Ruben Miller said.

Ferguson, a cancer patient, can't speak.So as four wheelers drove by searching for him, he couldn’t shout out for help.

But his dog did.

“Thank God for dogs,” Miller said.

Ferguson vanished Friday morning after leaving his home on Detroit Road in Burlison to walk Jinxy. Before rescuers found him, no one had seen Ferguson since about 10:30 a.m.

Investigators say Ferguson, who suffers from a mental illness that can cause hallucinations, wandered off.

Search teams were called both on the ground and in the air. Helicopters from the Memphis Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol were used.